I'm Baaaack!

We've been busy busy busy around here! Last Saturday we took Harv to meet John's parents, and then John and I left early Sunday morning for New Orleans. We hadn't been on a vacation just the two of us since our honeymoon, so we decided it was now or never. We always seem to have some major life change going on, and for once, life is pretty calm. And we figure this is one of the last times we can go away without Harvey realizing he's missing out. Next summer we definitely want to start taking family vacations, especially since Harvey will be 2 years old and totally into sight seeing. Toddlers are so patient.

Anyway, John and I were in New Orleans from Sunday morning through Thursday evening. We flew back into Nashville at 9:30pm on Thursday, and were in the car on our way to Illinois by 6am Friday morning. We went to get our boy and then we were off to John's cousin's wedding weekend. We were non stop busy with that until yesterday afternoon. We finally got home yesterday around 5:30. Now I'm sitting here with over 1000 photos to go through, and even more stories to share. To top it off, I have zero energy for any of it. Bummer. But I will go ahead and share one story.

This was our view from a coffee shop on Bourbon Street one morning. I was looking out and thought "Oh, what a cute little preschool! So interesting that it's right here on Bourbon Street." Made sense to me.

Then I thought about it a little more, and how bizarre it would be to have a preschool right in the middle of Bourbon Street of all places. I mean, there are strip clubs all over the place.........

Ah, there it is. Not actually a preschool, but the upstairs portion to a "gentlemen's club". Not a cute little teacher's apple cutout from The Parent Teacher Store after all.

And when you take a moment to take in the whole picture, you see it's also next door to 'Stiletto's Caberet'.

So innocent, so naive---until I saw Bourbon Street and their "preschools". So many more stories to come. But for now, I need to finish my chores. So lame.

Just Wike Goggie

I'm not weal sure what dis is. I sawed goggie do dis once and I fought I should twy it. Is kinda' fun I guess. Silly goggie.

Treasure the Doing

I was reading Nienie when I came across this quote from a post a couple of years ago.

The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less. ~Anna Quindlen

Now I'm a person who likes lists and schedules. And lists of schedules. Ah, heavenly. I'm very task oriented, and that really does interfere with how I live in the moment, especially as a mother with a young child. I think children need schedules, that they thrive in knowing what comes next. But some days I am so driven by the schedule, by getting this done so we can move on to that, and hurry hurry nap is coming! When really, at the end of the day, none of that really matters if I don't truly connect with those around me. In 15 years I don't want to look back and not be able to remember the sound of Harvey's giggle, the way he smells when he first wakes up in the morning, all the sweet little sounds he puts together right now, but to know that he went to bed on time every night and he always had a regularly scheduled nap. Checking everything off of my to-do list for the day is not as important as playing and making memories with my little boy. While having a routine and a schedule are important, it's more important to be all here all the time. Our children are only little for such a short amount of time, so let's all take some time to relax and treasure all the little moments while we can. I want to start treasuring the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Me and My Shadow

Harvey has been quite the little companion lately. He's going through a little (a lot of) seperation anxiety, so he's pretty much under foot at all times. He's basically with one of us all the time during the week except for the 2 1/2 hours he's in the nursery at church. This past Sunday---fail. We dropped him off and he cried after us. He's never done that before. I left my cell phone number with them and figured they would call if he was totally crazy. I figured he would cry for a minute, forget about us and start playing with all the new people. I mean, this is the child that I take to story time that crawls up in other mother's laps and pulls up on their shoulders to play with their hair. Cute for now, creepy in a few years buddy. I kept checking my phone (which was obviously on silent) and never saw anything. After Sunday school, I noticed I had a missed call from about 30 minutes earlier from a number I didn't know. Automatic guilt because we both knew Harv was freakin' out. We walked in the door to the children's wing and we could already hear him screaming. We got to his room, and he's sitting in the corner with a dad beside him, screaming his face off while all the other children are staring at him on the other side of the room. Everyone was a little freaked out by him. As were we, really. You could see the teachers breath a collective sigh of relief when we showed up and took him out. Apparently he cried off and on (mostly on) for the entire 2 1/2 hours. So for the next few weeks, we're supposed to stay in there with him to help him adjust. We'll be going to church just to sit in the nursery and not actually go to church. Sounds productive.

And, I'm really thinking we need to try a little harder to get him in a Mother's Day Out program in the fall. I tried before and they are all full. I think it would do this boy some good to be away from mama during the day just for a few hours a week. Good for mama too. :)

Today he was my little "helper" all around the house. Today we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and he fell off of/bumped his head on/smashed his fingers in everything possible. Amazing little helper. He cried at first when I started to vacuum (which also has never happened before), so I tried to put him in the Moby carrier on my side. Nothing like 26+ pounds of dead weight literally hanging off your side to make you really break a sweat. That didn't last for long. So I put him back on the floor, and his love affair with the vacuum was rekindled. We've been vacuuming around him since he was little, so he's not scared at all. He watched me as I went room to room, "helped" me mop, played with my duster, found random junk on the floor, and topped the day off by helping with the laundry. Pretty sure he's going to be like most children that are obsessed with the dryer. He pretty much climbed right on in. Whatever keeps him entertained while I'm working is fine by me. Just try not to injure yourself----again.

Here are some recent photos of our little shadow.


Harv and Mary Helen at the zoo. Quite the pair.







He already wants to be just like daddy. I think we're going to have another piano player (we already do, kind of).

And his other favorite past time---the 5 o'clock news. Really, that's what he's watching. Up close and personal. While banging on the DVD player. And getting in trouble. Again.

Tee Ball Part 2

I finally got all of Connor's tee ball game photos from two weeks ago together. Here are my favorites.

His first at bat during the game.

And here he is "running" home. Really, he's a good player. And not afraid to tell you that himself.

Not always so fun playing in the outfield.

Poor old Harvey was about to have a heat stroke during the game. These photos are not color enhanced----he's just that red hot.

He was desperate to get some water. Especially when it came from daddy's water bottle and not his lame-o sippy cup.

Mamaw and her tired little spectators.

Lorelai found a little buddy and a spot to spy on the boys in the dugout.

His team won!

And he won the game ball! He's the only player on his team to have gotten the game ball two times. And he's not afraid to tell you that. Not even afraid to tell you a few times a day. You gotta love how humble a six year old can be.

All Things Random

Since I'm currently being lazy every night (after I work a full day, come home and make dinner, clean up, help wrastle our wild animal into bed, spend time with John, and then get ready to do it all again the next day---oh so lazy), I've been neglecting my editing and blogging duties. Such a slacker. So, while I don't have any new photos to share, I do have some random stories and updates to share.

--Harvey is all grown up----no more bottles. We did away with them almost completetly by his first birthday, but we've been giving him one before bed a couple nights a week since then. He can't be bothered with them any longer. When we get in his chair at night, it's all about his "Doag Doag" book. He LOVES his dog book. So darn precious.

--It feels like a sweaty armpit outside right now. So hot and humid. Nice visual, eh?

--Harv is experiencing a little seperation anxiety right now. He's always been our independent first born, but he's turned a corner this past week. Last Sunday he had to have a "special friend" to hangout with him in the hallway while he was in the church nursery. Normally he loves nursery social time, hanging out with his homies, but he decided he wanted nothing to do with it last Sunday. Bad week to decide he was freaked out by other children because we left him for over 2 1/2 hours.

Then I took him to the mall to play the other day when he melted down. There were lots of little people that day, and he loved it at first. Crawling after all the bigger boys, trying to convince them he was big too. He seriously copied everything this one group of boys did. Then, he just sat still for a few minutes, threw his hands up in the air, and just started sobbing. It was one of the more pitiful things I've seen lately. I walked over to him and he didn't see me because he was looking at the floor. When he heard my voice he looked up and threw his hands up for me to pick him up. So relieved mom didn't leave afterall! From then on he was nervous when I would try to put him down to play, so I enjoyed a little snuggle time. Snuggle time is a very rare occurance these days, so I'll take it how I can get it. Even if I have to scare him myself every now and then, I'll do it.

--Harvey fell down the stairs today and hit his head. Man, that sounds like a really exciting story, don't you think? The other details that I left out are that it was actually two carpeted steps and he literally hit his head on a teddy bear. What the heck are the odds of a teddy bear being right there? But don't worry, he still cried and held his head like he fell down a whole flight of stairs. We were at Davis Kidd after story time and there were lots of other people there for him to put on a show for. He stayed snuggled up in my lap for awhile after that as well. Again, I'll take it how I can get it. If hitting his head on a teddy bear makes him want to snuggle, fine by me. I can't wait to tell his first girlfriend how tough he was when he was little.

--I'm really enjoying all the practice I'm getting with my photography. Learning some photoshop tricks has helped as well. I've learned a whole lot lately and I have a lot of things I'm looking forward to putting into practice soon. I have a couple more shoots planned in the next couple of weeks, and I'm pretty pumped about those. If you need some photos taken, let me know!

Ummmmmmm

I not so sure I wike dis. Dis bwog wooks kinda weird. But, I wike dat I'ms so big........so maybe is good. I dunno.

Testing

I'm working on making my photos larger and clearer. Clearly, the images are going to be larger, but there's nothing else fun going on here. So, I'm going to keep on trying new things. Should be interesting!

Baseball, Tee Ball Style

Last weekend while we were in Lexington, we were able to catch a Cardinals game. Our nephew Connor plays tee ball, and go figure, he plays for the Cardinals! He's already Harvey's hero (and John's too, really). So very cute. I have literally hundreds of photos to sort through, but I already have a few favorites I want to share with you.



It was hot. Oh so very hot. Poor little Harvey looked like he was going to have a heat stroke. Poor guy. But we had a blast with these three all weekend! I'm sure there will be lots more photos and stories to come. But for now, I've got plenty of editing left to do.

By the way, I just realized blogger is resizing my photos and making them look a lot less magical. :) If anyone knows how I can get my high res versions on here, let me know! Once I figure it out, I will probably repost some photos. Obnoxious, but totally worth it.

Cell Phone Photos

I realized today how many photos I take with my cell phone that are never really seen by anyone else. I decided today was the day to reveal some of the cute (and weird) recent photos of Harvey.

This is the way he prefers to eat. This does not happen often. This was lunch after an exceptionally hot and sweaty trip to the zoo. He was thuroughly enjoying rubbing mac-n-cheese and oranges all over his belly.


This was during a shopping trip with Aunt Nat. He pooped all over himself, and I didn't have another set of clothes for him. And we definitely weren't going home! :)He got to play the redneck baby for about 30 minutes while we were in TJ Maxx (where I bought him a new outfit).



Harv and MH at the library. Such cute little buddies.

This is Harvey's new lovie. And he is deeply in love with it. Swoozies was going out of business, and everything was marked 75% off. We were walking around the baby section, and I came across this bib. Harvey loves tags, and I've been looking for a Taggie blanket that's not $25+ dollars. I handed him the bib, and he immediately started sucking on it. It was just $4, so I decided he could have it. Could it be any more random?! There were no others like it in the store, so a girl's taggie bib with the letter "I" embroidered on it------we'll take it!

They lived happily ever after.......

And of course, Harvey in the pool. Obviously, he loves it. The chance to scream and splash and drink nasty dirty water----what's not to love?

Hello Again

I didn't have a good title in mind for today. And it looks as if I still don't. But, that's going to have to do it! Harvey is going through a super fun phase (sarcasm----I wish I could figure out how to make my words look sarcastic) so I'm pretty wiped out. This past weekend we were away from home, so he was naturally a little off. His schedule was crazy, he was always on the go, so I thought all that 'tude was just because he was tired. But now I'm starting to realize we're entering into the toddler phase of life. So many tantrums, so little time. His favorite things to do currently: throw his cup, throw his food, throw absolutely anything I hand to him, scream as loud as possible anytime something doesn't quite go his way. This is especially effective when done in public. He even managed to throw a couple good fits while we were in the pool today, the happiest place on earth. I'm telling you, kids are bipolar. So after an entire weekend in non baby proof houses, several days of attitude, and 2 family dinners that ended with Harvey crying until he was gagging, I'm pretty wiped out. But, we'll all adjust and get over it! We don't have many choices. I just try to remind myself, it only gets worse from here. Fortunately, he's still the cutest kid I know, and it's what's on the outside that matters most, right? Just go with it.

In between all the madness, I was able to edit a few more sweet photos of Gabby. I still have a few more to go, so you'll get at least one more post of her photos. And then Harvey will make another appearance on here.

Sweet Gabby

Whew, what a weekend! So many updates, so many photos, I'm up to my ears in photos edits---and I love it all! This weekend we went to Lexington for a visit. While I was there, I did a photo shoot for my sister and her family. We came home Sunday night, and Monday I did a photo shoot for my friends Collin and Jenna and their sweet baby girl, Gabby. Gabby was three weeks old on Monday, and let me tell you, she is a doll! The "plan" was to get some shots of her while she was awake, and then get some while she was asleep. Naturally, she stayed awake for her longest stretch to date----the entire time I was there! But, it was no big deal at all. She's the most laid back, easy going baby. And trust me, I tested her limits! This was my first newborn shoot, and she was the perfect baby to "practice" on. I have so many photos to choose from, so I'm just going to go ahead and post a few of my favorites .

Wow, you can tell where I spent some time editing and where I did not. I obviously started with the cocoon photos, and then just picked a few of my favorites and edited those. It was a long weekend, an even longer day today, and I'm pretty ready for bed. But, I wanted to give you all an update first. You're welcome. Don't worry, I'll be editing all the live long day tomorrow, so I'll have more to share soon.

Let me tell you, there's nothing like a cuddly, calm, sweet, good smellin' baby girl to make me want one of my own. And a nanny to take on all the night time duties. Yeah, if I could have a nanny, I would want another baby. But for now, I love my sleep. And that's just what I'm going to do. Right now. Goodnight!